However, in the the meeting, Lincolnshire county councillors voted to refer the overnight closure of Grantham A&E to the Health Secretary, as the closure is not in the interests of the residents of Grantham and the surrounding areas.

Charmaine Morgan, Lincolnshire county councillor for Grantham South and chair of SOS Grantham Hospital, told Lincolnshire Reporter: “As you can imagine for us, it’s a real blow that the unit was closed in the summer and even more of a blow to find out that the trust plan to keep it closed over winter as well.

“It is extremely important for us to have our voices heard.

“The Health Scrutiny Committee is actually one of the very few areas where the trust is actually held to account publicly.

“What’s happened is 120,000 people in the Grantham area are now going to be in some cases as far as 40 miles away from the next A&E unit and that’s completely unacceptable.”